


Crazy For You, & You & You &...

by Pastelglitchesxx



Series: Flip Envy Into Ecstasy (Arrowverse Polycule AU) [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), Vixen (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Aromantic Cisco Ramon, Asexual Caitlin Snow, Barrisco - Freeform, Barry Allen is in Denial, Bisexual Cisco Ramon, Canon Divergence, Coming Out, Cupioromantic Cisco Ramon, Drunk Caitlin Snow, Episode: s01e12 Crazy For You, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Angst and Humor, Gen, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, One Shot, Pansexual Barry Allen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Snowbarry, Polyamorous Barry Allen, Polyamorous Caitlin Snow, Polyamorous Cisco Ramon, Polyamory, The Flash (TV 2014) Season 1, They're just friends, Transgender Barry Allen, biromantic Caitlin Snow, flashvibe, polycule, snowvibestorm, transgender cisco ramon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28548135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastelglitchesxx/pseuds/Pastelglitchesxx
Summary: “It’s… been rough, but Ronnie would want us to stay together.”His thoughts clocked the last word in an instant. Unsteadily, he voiced it. “Together? In, um, what way?”“You know,” Caitlin yawned, shrugging vaguely. “Together.”“I-I didn’t know. You guys never told me.”
Relationships: Barry Allen & Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen/Cisco Ramon, Barry Allen/Eddie Thawne/Iris West (heavily mentioned), Barry Allen/Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (heavily mentioned), Cisco Ramon/Caitlin Snow (Queerplatonic), Cisco Ramon/Ronnie Raymond/Caitlin Snow (heavily mentioned)
Series: Flip Envy Into Ecstasy (Arrowverse Polycule AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020049
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Crazy For You, & You & You &...

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so this takes place during Crazy For You. Also in my AU Barry isn't Iris' foster brother because... who let that happen, and also Mari's involvement in this is just witty bartender (I hc she bounced around as a waitress during her four year period of, like, life-exploration). Anyways Caitlin lets a secret slip when she's drunk and Barry questions his life choices. Have fun!
> 
> Edit: i JUST REALIZED THIS IS THE MOMENT LINDA MEETS BARRY AND SHE CAN'T NOT BE IN THE POLYCULE SO I MIGHT HAVE TO REWRITE THIS ONCE I HAVE TIME LMAO SHE'S PROBABLY JUST GONNA BE THERE IN PASSING I'M SO SORRY LINDA I LOVE YOU

Barry held Caitlin’s hand as he cheerfully dragged the drunk woman off stage “I can’t believe you just did that,” he whispered, making her burst out in embarrassed laughter. She was sniffling near the end of the earth-shaking sound. He grinned. He’d never seen Cait so carefree, so wild and... _giggly._ He liked seeing his friend like this. 

Caitlin tried to whisper back, but it came out as a barely-restrained yell. “Me, neither!” She smirked, cat-like but without any trace of smugness, then loudly shushed her own voice. She pushed her forehead on Barry’s chest, giggling against him in an attempt to wind down. Barry put his arm around her, keeping her wobbly legs steady as her laughs eventually went silent.

The people around them either glared because of the noise, or chuckled themselves. One of the bartenders snapped for his attention, waving him over. Barry quickly shifted Caitlin so she could walk, but still be mostly held up by his arms. Cait was a lightweight in more ways than one, so he could easily push her along.

Barry got Caitlin settled on a stool perched up at the said barside being tended to. She immediately swagged three shots from a passing waiter’s tray, and after downing them, she gave a cute smile to the one who had called them over. “More, please and thank you. Make it a mai tai.” She requested matter-of-factly. Then she tilted her head. “Do you guys have funnel cake?”

Barry could only offer the scowling bartender a sheepish grin as he took the seat beside her. “Maybe we should give it a rest, huh, Cait?”

“Are you frik-fragging kidding me?” Caitlin turned on the stool. “I haven’t gotten drunk since I was 24! Two years of notta, nothing, zilch! Wow, I’m doing a great Cisco impression right now!” She snorted abruptly. “I’mma enjoy myself, Bar. Doctor’s orders.”

 _Hmm._ She never called him _‘Bar’_ before. Maybe tonight was his chance to get on her good side! They could be actual friends!

He realized he was being forced to play the part of fun-killer. So, maybe not. 

Barry tapped her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what you got that degree for.” He swung her around to face the bartender. She pouted at him, groaning through a hiccup. 

The bartender—who had _Mari_ written on the nametag—rolled her eyes. “Look, guy, your girlfriend’s cute, but she’s causing a scene. Keep the voices down.”

“I know, I know, I’m _trying!”_ Barry sighed. He almost forgot to add, “Oh, she’s not my girlfriend.” The thought of him and Caitlin wasn’t a sickening one, but it wasn’t one that brought him any warmth, either. He was more neutral to it, if you’d ignore the slight churn in his stomach. He only saw her as a friend, maybe even a best friend. _That_ was how he loved her; and to him, that was just as important if she had been his girlfriend.

He wondered for a second if that was how he loved Felicity. He knew it wasn’t, but he quickly ignored it. The uncomfortable feeling swallowing his stomach made his feet tap against the ground in an anxious rhythm. The familiar beat helped calm his nerves; it was _Singing In The Rain,_ his mother’s favorite musical. It always conjured pleasant memories of his lost mother.

Barry shook his head free of the thoughts.

“Try _harder.”_ The woman bit, and served them another series of shots before she left the pair for another customer. 

Caitlin moaned sadly. “What about my mai tai?” 

Barry fiddled with his hands, watching Caitlin empty all the glasses on her own. He _hoped_ she’d get drunk enough to transform into the sleepy-type drunk, then he could just zoom her into her place without any fuss. He didn’t want to end the night so quickly anyways. Caitlin was right; they did sort of need this, together and on their own. Barry’s feelings for Iris had finally worn him down (and repressing his thoughts about _her boyfriend, Felicity Smoak, and Felicity’s own boyfriend_ only served to make him bitter). Add his romantic troubles onto his new ride-or-probably-die vigilante lifestyle, and Barry could see why he wished he could get wasted so badly.

Caitlin burped thoughtfully. “I should call Cisco, tell him not to wait up.”

Barry chuckled a little, still a bit high off his own jitters. Then he felt his jaw lock in realization. “Cisco?”

“He’ll be worried if I come home late,” she tried to nod. “I’m _punctual,_ Barry Allen, _a one-person parliament of painful punctuality.”_

Despite Caitlin’s wasted screech-laughing, Barry’s smile fell. He looked at the woman curiously. “Uh, I didn’t know you two lived together.”

“Oh, we don’t. He moved into my building after...” The name died in her throat.

“Right,” Barry breathed. “Ronnie.” 

It was weird realizing that his doctor was the fiancée of his old high school boyfriend; _terrifying_ to realize that a guy he used to love was dead. Barry almost smiled at the memory of when they’d made the connection. When Cait realized it had to be the same Iris and Barry her fiancé used to know, she’d nearly outed his thinly-veiled crush on her. According to everyone around him, that wasn’t much of a secret, but Barry was too self-conscious to believe it unless it came from Iris. 

The only way Iris would risk rocking the boat, is if the world was ending.

He remembered how Iris set him up with Ronnie, and how Ronnie was always calling her their third. It was an idea that turned teenage-him beet red. Ronnie was always so cheeky, cool, and so sweet… he knew how to settle anything. If Iris was their reckless go-getter and Barry was their trembling comic relief, then Ronnie had been the brain cell, and charmingly so.

Barry blinked back the tears. “That’s, uh, sweet of Cisco.”

“Isn’t it?” She snorted, more bittersweet than anything. “... When Ronnie died, I closed myself off. Even more distant than usual. It worried Dr. Wells, but it scared Cisco more. After a while of letting me brood, Cisco put his foot down and...” she sighed, drinking in the memory rather than another glass, “and he moved in under me. As this big declaration that he loved me, that he didn’t need me to be okay, because how was any of it okay? But he needed me to know that he wasn’t going anywhere, that he—he wasn’t _gone_ yet,” her bottom lip quivered out. “It’s… been rough, but Ronnie would want us to stay together.”

His thoughts clocked the last word in an instant. Unsteadily, he voiced it. “Together? In, um, what way?”

“You know,” Caitlin yawned, shrugging vaguely. “Together.”

He blushed. “I-I didn’t know. You guys never told me.”

“We don’t just go telling people all willy-nilly,” she laughed. “We… we gotta scope them out first. The wrong people know, then we’re friggin’ toast.”

“K-Know what, specifically, though, Caitlin? Are you and Cisco…” His eyes shot open. “Were you having an affair?!”

 _“What?”_ Caitlin stared at him blankly, then downed a shot. “No,” she mused drunkenly. “We’re life partners, Bar.”

His brows furrowed. “I thought _Ronnie_ was your life partner.” It came out harder than intended, so he tried to play it off still with an unassuming grin.

Caitlin looked back at him, “He is—” she started, but her sentence caught on the word. “... He _was.”_

“I don’t—” Barry sputtered out an awkward laugh. “I don’t understand.”

She rasped through her nose, squinting a calculating gaze at him. Ginger brows swiftly arched and knitted together and narrow, cold eyes were pointed in his direction. He felt like she was trying to see through him, like he was a mouse in a science experiment. He looked away. 

Caitlin seemed to come to a conclusion. Never a good thing when one’s drunk. “Okay, I was in love with Ronnie. Romantic-type love. And Ronnie and Cisco were in love, real doraric-like on Cisco’s part, since he’s aro/cupio. And Cisco and I are in love, queerplatonically. We were a...”—she chuckled sadly to herself—“a semi-nonsexual throuple!” 

After a raspy giggle, her voice finally broke. “Now… now it’s just the two of us, and we’re so _fucking_ lonely—” tears fell out from her eyes and she pathetically tried to rub them away. Barry stared, frozen for a second, taken aback at the way she mumbled, _“stupid, stupid, this is stupid,”_ to herself under her breath. He shook his head and suddenly Caitlin blinked and found Barry tightly hugging her. His hands were rubbing up and down her back comfortingly and their chests were pulled together, his chin on her shoulder. She shuddered and after a moment of awkward silence, she dipped her head into the back of his neck and sniffled.

Barry felt her shake her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. You— we said we weren’t going to tell you yet.” 

“Hey, no, I’m not—” Barry pulled away, but squeezed their now-clasped hands, keeping it firm but delicate. He felt like he was seeing her for the first time. He’d never expected such a stubborn and snappy person to let him see her this way. Maybe all that stone-cold neutrality she served him when they first met had colored him biased. 

When he was a kid, if polyamory was brought up, the first thing that came to his mind was, well, sun-lovin’ hippies. He supposed the ever-logical, by-the-book and blunt woman before him didn’t fit that stereotype. Just... polyamory, it didn’t feel like a real thing that people—or something he—had the option to do. Not to him, and he knew not to most of the people he hung around before. He didn’t think to wonder if there were actual human beings out there that lived like that. It made his heart flutter, and he felt his mouth going dry from the small curiosity blooming inside him.

“I won’t tell anyone if you’re not comfortable with it, okay? I just didn’t know. I’m not, like, a _bigot_ or anything. You know I’m pan, right?”

She faked a gasp. “Really? The guy who used to date my fiance _likes guys?_ This is a lot to take in, Barry.” 

He found himself smiling.

She bit her lip, still nervous. Her eyes flashed down at their pressed fingers before taking in a breath. “While we’re at it anyways, I’m, uh... I’m bi,” she said through watery eyes. 

Barry gave a soft smile. “I’mmm trans,” he sung. “Or did you know that?” 

“Ronnie never mentioned it.” She lowered her chin. “Cisco’s trans, too, y’know.” 

“So is Felicity.” 

“Oh, _that_ girl!” Caitlin’s eyes went wide like saucers. “She’s _pretty.”_

“Well,” Barry snorted teasingly, “you _have_ seen her in her bra.”

Caitlin smiled for a moment, then pulled in more air from her nose. “Not like that. Remember how I said ‘semi-nonsexual throuple’? Well, I’m the nonsexual. I’m ace.”

“Oh,” Barry said. Then he smiled a bit wider, and held her hand a little tighter. “You know I support you. In everything. Even, um, polyamory, right? It’s cool. I have Hulu, I’ve seen _Married & Dating.” _

Caitlin laughed. “I promise we don’t have as many threesomes as them.”

“Not even with Cisco? He’s hot.”

“I know many hot boys, Barry, that doesn’t mean I want to, as Cisco puts it, _‘sex it up.’”_

“He really says that?” Barry fondly roared, so loud that he ducked down before anybody could boo at him. 

Caitlin turned her head, giving him a perky half-smile as she opened her purse. “He really does.”

Barry let their tethered hands fall apart while she rummaged for her credit card. “Is it weird I find that cute?” 

“Barry Allen!” Caitlin placed a card in front of her, still smiling at him. “I think you have a crush on my boyfriend.”

“That’s a possibility, yes.” 

“... We _are_ in an open relationship, if you want to pursue it.” Caitlin winked. 

Barry giggled anxiously. “I don’t know! I’ve always thought Iris was, like, my one and only. But being in that coma taught me that… time is precious. I-I guess I want something _now_ instead of, like, waiting for it? But I don’t want to lie to anyone, or to myself,” he said, ignoring the many ways he was lying to himself. “But she loves Eddie.”

Caitlin scoffed. “That doesn’t mean she doesn’t also love you, dummy. Haven’t you heard anything I’ve been saying?”

“Yeah, but I’m not a…” He ended the sentence at Cait’s death glare. “Uh, I don’t even know how to know if I’m into polyamory.”

“Alright. How about we run some tests, huh?” She smacked her hands together like she was rubbing off dust. Barry tried to keep his amusement of drunk-Cait only sobering up in the name of science down. “Was there ever a moment in your life where you wished that your friend group could just be your life partners?” 

Barry licked his lips. “Like, _‘gosh, wouldn’t it be great if we could all just date each other?’”_

She nodded. He shrugged in return. “I mean, I guess? But I was alone a lot as a kid! Foster families didn’t want the son of an alleged murderer around them. So, on the off chance I did make a friend or two, I never wanted it to end.”

“You weren’t the only kid left to their own devices. Though I didn’t bounce around like you, I grew up similarly, and now I spend my days off being my partner’s wingman at gay bars.”

He stared at her, his mind going blank. Caitlin fucking Snow, one of Harrison Wells’ closest confidants; how could she have grown up like him? She had _everything_ he had wanted when he was a kid. He expected her to be only slightly less wealthy than Oliver Queen himself (he ignored how his hands flushed at the thought of the Arrow), but she— _his friend_ was raised by Carla Tannhauser, wasn’t she a genius in her field? _I guess you never really know celebrities,_ he sighed, _even local ones._ He hoped that one day, Cait would trust him enough to tell him the story. But that wasn’t important then.

Barry twiddled with his thumbs. “I’m not—I’m not like you, Caitlin.”

She squinted again. “Why do you think that?”

Barry’s mind was whirring and he saw his hands flashing before him, anxiously wringing in super-speed. “I’m just—I’m just not, okay?!”

Caitlin quickly grabbed his hands, almost making him topple forward with how harshly she thrust at them. Once her grip was so firm Barry winced, she clenched her teeth. She was calm, but now without tensity. That was evident in her all-but-nurturing tone. “You keep restarting your sentences, Barry.” She scowled. “Are you aware that’s a sign of dishonesty?”

“It’s also a symptom of social anxiety?” Barry huffed, still not sure of what just happened. 

Caitlin let go. “That’s... fair,” she snapped. She wouldn’t look at him.

“... I didn’t, um, mean any offense. I just can’t be that.”

“I never thought I would, either. So, why can’t you?”

 _It would just make things worse,_ his thoughts cursed, _you’re already a neurodivergent, pan, trans metahuman vigilante, you really want to willingly bring on all this other shit?_ Barry was quiet for a minute. “... It sounds too hard.”

“Which part?”

“... All of it.”

Caitlin loosened her grip and laced their fingers. “... You’re not talking about just it anymore, are you?” 

It wasn’t a question, but it was gentle like one. His gaze darted until he found their eyes locked, and felt the knot in his gut loosen at the soft glint in her eyes. 

He watched his fingertips tap lightly on her knuckles. “I… I’m sorry, Cait,” he sniffled.

“And why are you sorry, Bar?” Caitlin prompted, smiling.

He didn’t know what he was going to say when he opened his mouth. Strangely, he was okay with that. It was like he was repressing it for so long, that when the dam finally broke, there was barely any water left anyways. He was just so tired of denying it, of being too scared to listen to himself. What did he have to lose now? He was going to end up dead no matter the path he chose, so why not be true to himself in the long run? 

When morning came, he could always blame the alcohol. 

“I’m…” He shook his head. “I-I didn’t stop loving Iris when I dated Ronnie, and—and ever since I met Felicity, I-I had feelings for Oliver, too, and, like— Cisco’s really funny and Eddie’s so hot and—!” He forced the gush to an end when he turned the color of his suit. 

Caitlin could only offer him a drunken laugh. He tried for a grin, even as he could feel his face wet. “... It’s, um, confusing.”

“It is, when you first start out,” Caitlin agreed, giving their hands a squeeze. “Eventually, though, it starts to feel normal. And you’re going to be happy. _All_ of you.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t promise it, but that just means you have to work twice as hard.” 

She smiled. “I promise you can do that, and I promise that it’s worth it.”

He blinked back some tiredness from the night’s high emotions, but he still felt exhaustion begin to drag at his bones. “You’d know about that,” he croaked, so happily he could cry. 

“I might know a thing or two.” Caitlin let go of him and stretched her arms. “I’ll tell you about it sometime.”

“... Thanks, Cait.”

“... You’re welcome, Bar.” 

She gave him a smile, then called back for Mari. The waitress ambled over and swiped Caitlin’s credit card. Mari handed it back and looked the two up and down. “You guys suddenly get sober or something?”

“It’s been emotional!” Barry barked. 

“Yeah, we just came out to each other!” 

“And I came to terms with being a slut!”

“An _ethical_ slut!”

“Yeah, an ethical slut!” 

“Jesus fucking, okay—” Mari waved her hands in the air. Her bows arched and she took a step back, watching them with a hint of fondness. “Uh, good for you… sluts?”

Caitlin looked at him. “Is a mono allowed to call polyamorous people sluts?”

Mari snickered and crossed her arms on the bar. “If it makes you feel better, I’m aroace. Everyone’s a slut to me.”

Barry let out a laugh. “I think I’ll allow it, this time.”

Mari watched them giggle for a moment. “Well, goodnight, you two.” She turned and waved them off. “I hope I never see either of you again.”

“I will probably hope that tomorrow, too,” Caitlin agreed.

Barry stood up and offered his hand. “Alright, let’s get you home—”

“Oh, frick!” Caitlin suddenly gasped. “I never called Cisco!” 

“Guess we’ll do it the fast way, then,” he mumbled in her ear, and he pulled Caitlin close.

Mari glanced behind her, and found not a trace of both Barry and Caitlin. She frowned, her eyes skitting the ground for any sign of them. There’s no way they could’ve sped out so quickly, right? 

Oh, well. None of her business anyways.

Barry listened closely as Caitlin’s labored breathing softened. She was finally asleep. Just as he got up from his chair, there was somebody opening her front door. Barry peeked out of the room and saw Cisco staring at him.

“Hey, man, what’re you—?” he said in a low voice. His gaze flickered past Barry to Caitlin, and he smirked. “Oh, good. I was worried about her. Did you guys have fun?”

Barry closed the door behind him. “We did.”

“That’s great. You kinda needed it, no offense.” Cisco chuckled as quiet as he could. “I hope you didn’t have to wait too long, dude, but knowing Cait, she was out like a light!”

Barry smiled at him, listening to the way his heartbeat quickened at Cisco’s grin. “Yeah, uh, does she usually do that? Like, need someone else in the room?”

“You think I just barge in for no reason?” He laughed, hushed. “Ronnie moved in with her almost immediately after they started dating and it feels weird for her to sleep without him, so I hang around, remind her to go to bed, and I stay with her until she sleeps. It works for both of us. It’s called compromise.” 

_“ You have to work twice as hard. I promise you can do that, and I promise that it’s worth it.”_

Barry swallowed his nerves. “Hey, Cisco?”

Cisco opened the front door to let them out of Caitlin’s left. “What’s up?”

“Caitlin sort of told me everything.”

Cisco stopped in his tracks. “... Oh,” he mumbled. “Uh, well, the trans and bi and cupio stuff wasn’t really a secret, so I’m guessing you’re talking about that… other thing?”

Barry briskly nodded.

“Caitlin already explain it?”

“Yeah.”

His voice pitched. “And are we… cool?”

“Yeah, of course!” Barry said, bumping his hand on Cisco’s shoulder.

“Oh, thank god,” Cisco blurted out. Then he awkwardly shrugged. “Uh, sweet! Sorry we hid it from you, but, y’know how some people can be. We have to make extra-extra-extra-thousand-other-extras-sure.”

“Oh, I _get it,”_ Barry nodded, following him out. “You don’t have to worry about me, though. I’m, uh— I kind of think I might be poly, too.”

Cisco raised his eyebrows. “Not... what I expected.” He closed the door. “And we use _‘polyam’_ so that it’s not confused with plysexual or polynesian,” he added. “Do you, like, wanna talk about it at my place? I can microwave up some burritos.”

Barry flushed. “Th-that would be nice.”

“Awesome!” Cisco grinned. “My place is right under hers, so let’s go.” When he took the taller man’s hand, Barry was acutely aware of how sweaty his own palms were. 

By the time they reached Cisco’s door, Barry’s face felt so hot he thought he was going to spontaneously combust. Cisco didn’t comment on his pinkened skin. He let go and went to turn the handle.

Barry wrung his hands. “Um, Cisco?”

Cisco turned to smile at him after opening his apartment. “You okay?”

Barry watched as he rocked forward and then was suddenly pulling himself back and quickly wiping his mouth. 

Cisco was frozen. “That may have been the fastest kiss of my entire life.”

“Sorry,” Barry said.

Cisco grabbed the other man by the shirt and filled the space between them. “Don’t be,” he said, breathing into him heavily as they drew away. “I should really talk to Caitlin first, though.”

“She’s fine with it,” Barry squeaked. “She said that you’re, um, you’re opened, so, like, she said— if I wanted to pursue anything, it was fine—”

“Aw, you guys talked about me?” Cisco gushed. Then he bit his lip, his eyes flickering at Barry’s own, and his tone took a hungry turn. “That’s _adorable.”_

In a flash, Barry was half-pushing, half-dragged into the apartment. The door kicked to a close behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> So hey I guess I'm sort of in a depressive episode. Who knew? So there'll probably be a slow on stuff. I am in the middle of a longer project tho (yes it's for this AU but it's sort of an AU to this... AU) so be sure to look out for that in a while!! I'll get outta my slump soon hopefully


End file.
